TORONTO PUBLICITY 101

In dealing with media relations, my first piece of advice is, if you have a budget it is best to hire a professional. There are music publicists like myself who, although based in the United States, are experts on the Canadian music media scene. In turn, there are a number of very good independent publicists and publicity firms in Canada who could handle PR services on your behalf for Canadian Music Week.

This article is for the bands that do not currently have or cannot currently afford a professional publicist. This breakdown of Toronto media information will also be useful for any band who is currently represented by a press agent who in unfamiliar with the Canadian music media and Toronto media in particular.

In preparing to pursue media coverage on behalf of your band, the standard procedure is to conduct a media mailing to prospective journalists, critics, programmers and editors. A media press package should include all or most of the following information: Band Biography, Band Photo(s) (black & white and color), recent press coverage, a copy of the cd and your showcase information (day, time, venue + address).

n terms of defining your Toronto media mailing list, you should make note of the following media outlets.

PRINT MEDIA

There are 4 daily newspapers in Toronto, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, The Globe & Mail and The National Post. All band media packages should be directed to the music department and any and all listings departments. There are 2 weekly newspapers in the city: Eye Weekly and Now Magazine. Although both of these carry hard news stories, they are very entertainment oriented and dedicate a large portion of their editorial to the arts including music listings and features. Additional print media outlets include Tandem Magazine (Bi-Weekly) plus a number of specialty ethnic publications including Caribbean Camera, The Gleaner and more. Lastly, for band with a campus audience base, the three primary educational institutes with campus newspapers are University of Toronto, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and York University.

LOCAL TELEVISION

Toronto local television includes: CBC-TV, CTV, CITY-TV, CFMT and Global-TV. If you want coverage of your bands’ actual concert, deal with the entertainment camera assignment desks. If you want coverage in advance of the show, pursue various entertainment reporters. Lastly, most of these stations have daily programming where bands are invited in the studio for interviews and/or performances. Your media target is the entertainment producer at these various shows. Also to note, Much Music (Canada’s MTV) is based in Toronto. For more adult contemporary music, Much More Music and/or Bravo should also be targeted. For the youth market and teen-based pop, YTV is also based in Toronto.

RADIO:

Key Toronto radio targets include: CISS-FM (Top 40), The Edge (Modern/Alternative Rock), and Energy95 (Dance). You may also want to approach the more mainstream radio stations The Mix 99.9, CHUM-FM, CHFI and EZ Rock, although they rarely feature independent bands. There are also campus radio stations for each of the educational institutes listed above. Lastly, any band who is currently receiving airplay on public radio in their own country, for example in the United States on NPR or in the United Kingdom on the BBC should send copies of their cds to the music programming department at CBC Radio in Canada. CBC has both local and national radios shows were artists could be interviewed and/or perform.

WORLD WIDE WEB

There are a number of entertainment websites based in Toronto. Your best bet is to run a search on the internet for these publications. A few exampled include: www.TheGate.ca, and www.umbrellamusic.com. In addition most of the major record/book stores also have websites where they will run artist interviews and/or CD reviews. They include www.hmv.com and www.chapters.com.